title: Increased C-reactive protein implies a poorer stage-specific prognosis in colon cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To characterize the stage-specific prognostic relevance of preoperative systemic inflammatory response, defined by C-reactive protein (CRP), in colon cancer (CC) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from CC patients operated on from 1998 to 2007 at three hospitals from three different Nordic countries were collected retrospectively from national registries, local databases and/or patient records. Patients with emergency surgery, infection or auto-immune disease were excluded. Associations between clinical or histopathological variables and CRP were assessed. Patients were followed from the date of surgery to death or end of follow-up. Disease-specific survival (DSS) was the main endpoint.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 525 patients with age and stage distributions which were representative for CC patients were included. None of the patients was lost to follow-up. Age, TNM Stage, WHO differentiation grade and right-sided tumor location significantly associated with elevated CRP values, in contrast to postoperative morbidity, which did not. CRP levels were found to be a strong prognostic factor for DSS in CC. The risk of death due to CC was augmented with increasing levels of CRP in every stage of operated CC. Both short- and long-term DSS were impaired. The sub-hazard ratios for CRP-levels above 60 mg/L were 7.37 (CI 2.65-20.5) for stage I+ II, compared to 3.29 (CI 1.30-8.29) for stage III and 2.24 (CI 1.16-4.35) for stage IV.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increase of CRP concentrations correlate with clinically relevant poorer disease-specific survival in each stage of CC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Southern Hospital Trust , Kristiansand , Norway.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kersten
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Louhimo
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ålgars
authors.forename: Aleksi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lahdesmaki
authors.forename: Milada
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cvancerova
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stenstedt
authors.forename: Caj
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haglund
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gunnarsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002097:C-Reactive Protein